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Build Apps for Cars on the New Automatic Developer Platform

developer.automatic.com

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Re: Build Apps for Cars on the New Automatic Developer Platform

#2

Post by atonse »

I didn't know there was already a second generation Automatic.

I pre-ordered the first one and had a lot of problems with it constantly losing connection and not tracking trips. I checked the app a few times to find out that data was just not collected, and it was just cumbersome to get the device to reconnect, with having to turn off my engine and do a dance to get it to talk to my car, that it just became a pain and sat in my glove box for months.

Hope they've fixed these issues, but I'm skeptical about buying a 2nd gen after that experience.

Re: Build Apps for Cars on the New Automatic Developer Platform

#3

Post by thejo »

atonse wrote: post #2

I didn't know there was already a second generation Automatic. I pre-ordered the first one and had a lot of problems with it constantly losing connection and not tracking trips. I checked the app a few times to find out that data was just not collected, and it was just cumbersome to get the device to reconnect, with having to turn off my engine and do a dance to get it to talk to my car, that it just became a pain an…

I'm sorry you did not have a great experience with our first gen device. We're announcing the second generation device today with the developer platform. The connectivity issues some of our users experienced with the first gen device were mainly due to BTLE. The second gen device has MFi support which allows us to support classic Bluetooth with iPhones. It's much more reliable. You must have received an email with a discount code. I hope you try it. We're also happy to help you get to the bottom of your issues if you write to support@automatic.com.

Re: Build Apps for Cars on the New Automatic Developer Platform

#7

Post by TeeWEE »

I'm browsing this website for 5 minutes, and still dont fully understand what they offer. Do they offer an api to get data of their own drivers on the road? Or do they offer an api to get data of any car out there? Or do they have a box you need to install in your car, which has a built in rest api to get the data you need? I think the initial value this company provides should be more clear on the landing page.

Re: Build Apps for Cars on the New Automatic Developer Platform

#8

Post by atonse »

thejo wrote: post #3
atonse wrote: post #2

I didn't know there was already a second generation Automatic. I pre-ordered the first one and had a lot of problems with it constantly losing connection and not tracking trips. I checked the app a few times to find out that data was just not collected, and it was just cumbersome to get the device to reconnect, with having to turn off my engine and do a dance to get it to talk to my car, that it just became a pain an…

I'm sorry you did not have a great experience with our first gen device. We're announcing the second generation device today with the developer platform. The connectivity issues some of our users experienced with the first gen device were mainly due to BTLE. The second gen device has MFi support which allows us to support classic Bluetooth with iPhones. It's much more reliable. You must have received an email with a…

OK thanks maybe I'll contact support - I have to say though that the SDK looks very exciting, especially the streaming events. Kudos on fixing on this very opaque part of car maintenance.

Re: Build Apps for Cars on the New Automatic Developer Platform

#9

Post by baggachipz »

atonse wrote: post #2

I didn't know there was already a second generation Automatic. I pre-ordered the first one and had a lot of problems with it constantly losing connection and not tracking trips. I checked the app a few times to find out that data was just not collected, and it was just cumbersome to get the device to reconnect, with having to turn off my engine and do a dance to get it to talk to my car, that it just became a pain an…

I had the exact same problems. It simply didn't want to connect to my android devices half the time. There was no point in collecting all that data if half of it was missing. Was thoroughly disappointed with that pre-order.

Re: Build Apps for Cars on the New Automatic Developer Platform

#10

Post by codazoda »

TeeWEE wrote: post #7

I'm browsing this website for 5 minutes, and still dont fully understand what they offer. Do they offer an api to get data of their own drivers on the road? Or do they offer an api to get data of any car out there? Or do they have a box you need to install in your car, which has a built in rest api to get the data you need? I think the initial value this company provides should be more clear on the landing page.

From what I gather, it's a bluetooth device that you plug into your cars OBD-II port. That transmits data from your car to your smart phone. Your phone, then, transmits the data to automatic.

So, you can look at daily gas mileage stats, error codes, and things like that. I assume the GPS parts come from the phone itself (while in the car).

The idea sounds interesting but I wouldn't want the data to be transmitted to the cloud. I'd also be worried that the data might be permissible in court if you were in an accident, for example. As a result, they might see that you were going 10 over at the time of the accident or that you had been doing so 2 minutes down the road. Lots of invalid conclusions can be made on such data and I wouldn't want to share it.

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